Archive for the ‘Mitch McConnell’ Category

Earth shaking news today that Pressident Barack Obama has honored President Hamid Karzai’s request for Afghanistan’s official representation in the strategic review on the future of the U.S. and Afghanistan.

Karsai may have gotten the idea from U.S. Chaiman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen who has an Op-Ed in today’s Washington Post under the headline “Trust is the Coin of the Realm.”

Too bad there was no such effort to involve Republicans in the formulation of the “strategic review” that built the just passed economic stimulus.

That’s because by most accounts, there was no real strategic review on the future of the American economy and what to do next by Team Obama, that we know about, for sure, even given the pledge on “transparency;” and the Republican involvement in the formulation of the stimulus was only given lip service.

We write this fittingly on Valentine’s Day; a day that is often charged with lip service.

Note to President Obama: Congressional Republicans represent something like 47% of the American voter population that voted for the other guy.

In Kabul, Afghanistan, U.S. Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke said President Obama welcomed President Karzai’s recommendation for his side’s total involvment in the U.S. planning effort.

Karzai said his foreign minister, Dadfar Rangin Spanta, would head the delegation.

Memo to Dadfar Rangin Spanta: when you meet Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid you are in trouble. The “strategic review” is finished, if the stimulus is any guide.

Now maybe the White House, which honored Republicans before the vote on the stimulus with photo opportunity meetings with the president, a cocktail party, a Super Bowl feed complete with peanuts, and not one actual working group of real substance at the White House, Old Executive (excuse me, I’m old: Eisenhower) Office Building, or in the House or the Senate Office Buildings — will send a special envoy to meet Republicans.

I mean, there is a special envoy to the Middle East, isn’t there? To Afghanistan? Even Susan Rice, Ambassador to the U.N. is now said to have Cabinet Rank?

Where’s the outreach to Repubicans — and their 47% of the electorate — that has productive intention, real merit, and invites seriously serious input?

Real outreach to Republicans doesn’t exist and hasn’t yet in this presidency.

Trust is not the coin of this realm.

Let’s see: we need a White House special envoy to Republicans. We are just thinking of guys that won’t be laughed at or ridiculed by say Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, John McCain, or talking heads like Karl Rove and Charles Krauthammer.

How about Rahm Emanuel or Jimmy Carter?

No, maybe not.

Trust is not the coin of Rahm. Ask Judd Gregg.

And Afghanistan should know that the “bipartisanship” they really seek is not the kind of bipolar treatment that Democrats just gave Republicans during the stimulus enema.

Hint to White House: you don’t need a special envoy to Rush Limbaugh. Republicans only like him for his entertainment value….

But maybe the president himself could still be the special envoy to Republicans in the spirit of trust and bipartisanship?

Maybe not.

The president’s record on “outrach” and bipartisanship to Republicans, and trasparency, so far, I mean during the stimulus, is like purchased sex with a working girl; it is sleezy and meaningless. Maybe he needs some chachki toys or aluminum key chains with little hand painted “Air Force One” or “White House” gimmicks or the presidential Great Seal. You know, creations to hand out to Republicans….. Or maybe a little yellow tractor from Caterpillar on a key chain…. Or Abe Lincoln to remind one of two great presidents….

Karzai: watch out. It’s not just the Taliban that will keep you awake with worry about trust.

If you get peanuts at the White House watch out. And don’t be surprised….

Afghan President Hamid Karzai (R) talks with U.S. Special Representative to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke in Kabul February 15, 2009.REUTERS/Omar Sobhani (AFGHANISTAN)

Psst: Karzai. If this is your agreement at the end of the ‘strategic review’ and you get it just before decision time, BEND OVER. House GOP leader John Boehner shows a copy of the massive bill, which he and every other Republican in the House opposed, along with seven Democrats. Photo: Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Special envoy material….. Trust is the coin….Leadership, bipartisanship, transparency, honesty, integrity and clout? Incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel gestures prior to the inauguration ceremony of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States, in Washington, January 20, 2009.(Jim Young – UNITED STATES/Reuters)

Congressional Republicans lack President Barack Obama’s bully pulpit and do not have the majorities that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid enjoy. But they are playing their hand extraordinarily well.

By Karl Rove
The Wall Street Journal

Over the past month, House Republicans have used the stimulus bill to redefine their party, present ideas on how to revive the economy, and force congressional Democrats and the president to take ownership of the spending programs soon to be signed into law.
The first smart move House Republicans made was to raise objections to specific parts of the House stimulus bill. Pointing out that there is money in the bill for condoms, livestock insurance, refurbishing the National Mall, and other outlandish things revealed that it is a massive spending spree, not an economic stimulus.

House Republicans had the wisdom to continue to talk to the Obama White House. This made them look gracious, even as the president edged toward a “my way or the highway” attitude.

They also wisely put ideas on the table, such as cutting the bottom two income tax rates and small-business taxes while extending unemployment insurance and other safety-net provisions. With these proposals, Republicans generated news and made it possible for their members to be for something that made sense to their voters. It also helped that the same methodology that the White House used to claim that the Democratic stimulus bill would create four million new jobs showed that the Republican approach would create six million new jobs, at half the cost.

The payoff is that support for the stimulus bill is falling. CBS News polling reveals a 12-point drop in support of the bill over the past month. Pew Research and Rasmussen have turned in similar numbers. The more Americans learn about the bill, the less they like it.

What is becoming clear is that the House GOP is becoming energized by empowering its “Young Guns.” Leader John Boehner has been good. But he wouldn’t be as effective if he didn’t have the help of Reps. Eric Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican, and Mike Pence, the House GOP conference chairman. Reps. Paul Ryan and Dave Camp, the top Republicans on the Budget and the Ways and Means committees, are impressive and add depth to the leadership team.

Over in the Senate, Republicans have likewise followed a “better ideas” strategy. Mitch McConnell pushed to make aid to states loans, not grants, and to cut income taxes for the middle class. Other Republican senators came in with ideas to fix housing, put money in the hands of taxpayers, and cut fat from the stimulus.

They also asked the Congressional Budget Office if the Democratic Senate bill was actually stimulative. The nonpartisan CBO found it would have a “negligible” impact on jobs by 2011 and hurt economic growth and prosperity over the next decade.

Mr. Obama will get his bill. But it won’t be one focused on job creation and stimulus. The bill he signs will create a raft of new programs and be the biggest peacetime spending increase in American history, which will give us larger deficits and create pressure to raise taxes. It will also hinder the president’s other goals, such as expanding government health care.

But if Republicans predict economic doom, they will overplay their hand. The Democratic stimulus will slow recovery, but not stop it. Recessions don’t last forever and, if history is a guide, sometime late this year or early next the economy will rebound on its own. When that happens, Democrats will argue that their untargeted, permanent spending actually revived the economy.

Americans are skeptical of the notion that increasing the size and cost of government will lead to an increase in jobs and economic growth. A recent CBS News poll, for example, shows that 62% of Americans think “reducing taxes” will “do more to get the U.S. out of the current recession” — nearly three times the 22% who prefer “increasing government spending.” A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 60% of Americans are worried that government will “spend too much” to boost the economy. Only 33% worry it will spend “too little.”

The debate here is about means, not ends. Americans and both parties want a revived economy. Republicans want focused proposals that create jobs and growth, while the White House seems ready to accept what House and Senate appropriators have drawn up.

Mr. Obama, for all his talents, has already re-energized the GOP and sparked a spending debate that will last for years. The president won this legislative battle, but at a high price — fiscally and politically.

Mr. Rove is the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush.

Europe’s euphoria over Barack Obama is fading fast. As Congress wrangles over the President’s $819 billion stimulus package, a “buy American” clause has the European Union threatening legal action and retaliatory sanctions and opening up the prospect of an explosive trade war.

Just weeks after hailing Obama’s election, E.U. officials are now howling that his plans are putting a global economic recovery at risk. They want Obama to resist any retreat into protectionism, warning that it could turn the recession into a 1930s-style slump.

The “buy American” clause in the President’s economic stimulus package states that only U.S. iron, steel and manufactured goods can be used in construction projects funded by the bill. The package has already been approved by the House of Representatives, and the Senate is currently debating an $888 billion version of the bill.

Time Magazine

The provisions might protect U.S. jobs in the short term, but the E.U. says they would hobble global trade, a key motor for the world economy. John Bruton, the E.U. ambassador in Washington, has described the measures as “setting a dangerous precedent, and “neither the right or effective response to the situation.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that “past world economic crises showed protectionism would be the completely wrong answer.”

Similar measures to “buy American” have been adopted or considered in Argentina, China, Indonesia, Ecuador, India, Russia and Vietnam. Pascal Lamy, director-general of the World Trade Organization, warned on Feb. 2 that any go-it-alone route would foster a spiral of retaliation. “Today we run the risk of sliding down a slippery slope of tit-for-tat measures. It was Mahatma Gandhi who said ‘An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind,’ ” Lamy said.

The E.U.’s alarm is partly a reflection of its own precarious situation in the face of a widespread backlash against globalization. The commission is now scrutinizing the E.U.’s own stimulus schemes for potential discrimination against foreigners. In focus are plans such as France‘s $10 billion move to bail out its car industry by requiring firms to source car parts from local suppliers.

“In this climate, many people resent seeing billions of tax dollars leak outside the country. But if this ‘buy American’ clause is adopted, it will make it harder for those in Europe in arguing for markets to stay open,” says Simon Tilford, chief economist at the London-based Centre for European Reform (CER) think tank. “Also, after Europe’s huge expectations for Obama, there is bound to be a huge disillusion with him if the U.S. goes down this road.”

“Buy American” is highly popular among Congressional Democrats and trade unions. Obama supported it during his White House campaign, even distributing campaign buttons and flyers with a special emblem.

But the move is opposed by most Republicans, and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has demanded that it be stripped from the bill. Major U.S. companies like General Electric and Caterpillar have also opposed the provision, saying it will hurt their ability to win contracts abroad – and impose layers of bureaucracy on what is already likely to be a cumbersome contracting process.

It was clear yesterday that the White House was trying to demonize Senate Republicans on their slow response to the economic stimulus. The president himself predicted “catastrophe” if the federal economic stimulus is not passed quickly.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs seemed to carefully choose his words to paint Republicans as the the real problem here.

If the stimulus is so great why do 50% of Americans no longer think so?

And all the demonization of Republicans sounds good until you listen to Senate Democrats defend the stimulus bill. There aren’t any.

Where’s Harry Reid? Too busy to defend the president’s legislation as handed down by Nancy Pelosi and the House?

Senator Kent Conrad (D-NK) said today that he is making an alliance with Republicans to cut the most egregious provisions out of the stmulus.

Egregious parts of the stimulus, says a Democratic Senator. While his president predicts castrophe if those same provisions are not passed….

There are Republicans expressing opinions on the stimulus, like McCain saying he’d rather have no stimulus bill than this one and Grassly saying we need to “look before we leap.”
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Grassley and others want more time to review the House version of the stimulus or they want a new bill all together….

President Obama keeps pressing on the gas, hoping things will go faster.

That makes Republicans ask even more, “What all is buried in here?”

Many are saying that few in the House even read through the stimulus — relying instead upon the president explaining the crisis and the spending solution.

The issue is the President’s economic or recovery package, also called the stimulus.

Top Democrats plan to add a big increase in highway and mass transit funding.

Patty Murray, D-Wash., wants to add $25 billion in infrastructure projects. That would bring the U.S. stimulus more in line with the plan now favored by France.

France yesterday rejected a stimulus plan without a lot of real infrastructureimprovements as “too much like the ‘Obama style’ plan.”

Highway projects in the stimulus would also be boosted by almost 50 percent, to $40 billion.

Republicans, for their part, readied a plan to lower mortgage costs to try to jolt the housing market out of its slump.

Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) offered a plan with $713 billion. He says his plan offers more immediate jobs and tax cuts and a smaller increase to the debt.

The $885 billion Senate economic plan faces tough going from both Democrats and Republicans during debate this week.

The proposal includes $430 billion in tax cuts, $114 billion for infrastructure projects, $138 billion for extending unemployment insurance, food stamps and other provisions to help those in need and $31 billion to address the housing crisis.

“The goal is to shape a package that is more targeted, that would be smaller in size and that would be truly focused on saving or creating jobs and turning the economy around,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

Non-job making items in the House version of the simulus like $870 million to combat bird flu should be removed….

Republicans said their goal was to change the bill, not to block it. “Nobody that I know of is trying to keep a package from passing,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader.

“We need to fix housing first,” he said. Republicans are expected to seek a vote on their proposals this week as part of the debate on the overall stimulus measure.

“In its current form, [the stimulus plan] does too little to raise national spending and employment. It would be better for the Senate to delay legislation for a month, or even two, if that’s what it takes to produce a much better bill. We cannot afford an $800 billion mistake.” — Economist Martin Feldstein

Over the weekend, you see, Sen. McConnell gave the GOP radio address. The subject was the “stimulus.” Generational Theft Act, Crap Sandwich Supreme, Porkulus, Spendulus, Debt Stimulus Plan. Pick your name. It’s all B.S. And Americans know it. Senate debate begins today at 2pm Eastern. On the heels of the House Republicans’ unanimous rejection of the Obama/Democrats’ Big Government package and shifting public opinion against the plan, you might think the Senate GOP minority leader would get a clue:

Last Wednesday night’s House tally on the Democratic stimulus package, where not a single Republican voted in favor, was another shot across the bow for this incredibly unmanageable $900 billion behemoth of a program that truly will not stimulate the economy. Sure, the Democrats won on a party-line count. But Team Obama is now regrouping in the face of mounting criticism of this package.

Republican economist Martin Feldstein revoked his prior support of a stimulus plan in The Washington Post last Wednesday. “In its current form,” Mr. Feldstein wrote, “[the plan] does too little to raise national spending and employment. It would be better for the Senate to delay legislation for a month, or even two, if that’s what it takes to produce a much better bill. We cannot afford an $800 billion mistake.”

Clinton economic adviser Alice Rivlin made the same point in testimony before the House Budget Committee. Her message: Divide up the package and slow down the process.

And Sen. Richard Shelby, Alabama Republican, told CNBC that Washington should “shelve the stimulus package” and instead attack the banking and credit problem first – probably with a government-sponsored bad bank that would relieve financial institutions from their toxic-asset problem. Mr. Shelby believes the credit crunch remains the biggest obstacle to economic recovery.

Later in the day when I interviewed Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, he agreed with Mr. Shelby that the stimulus plan should be shelved.

“As it stands it would be very hard for me to vote for this package, because I don’t think it is fully targeted, timely and temporary,” Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) said. “I think there is widespread dissatisfaction with the package that came over from the House.”

Both Democratic Senator Kent Conrad and Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson seem ready to join with Senate Republicans against the House version of the stimulus….

“Too little is being done about housing, which is central to the crisis,” said Conrad.

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Republicans suggested overhauling the Senate’s stimulus proposal because they said it doesn’t pump enough into the private sector through tax cuts but allows Democrats to go on a spending spree unlikely to jolt the economy.

“When I say start from scratch, what I mean is that the basic approach of this bill, we believe, is wrong,” said Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 2 Republican. He added that he was seeing an erosion of support for the bill.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said he doubted the Senate would pass the bill, contending that Democrats as well as Republicans were uneasy with it. He renewed a Republican complaint that Democrats had not been as bipartisan in writing the bill as Obama had said he wanted.

“I think it may be time … for the president to kind of get a hold of these Democrats in the Senate and the House, who have rather significant majorities, and shake them a little bit and say, ‘Look, let’s do this the right way,'” McConnell said. “I can’t believe that the president isn’t embarrassed about the products that have been produced so far.”

Democrats defended their almost $819 billion version of President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan, which is set for debate this week, and said they were open to considering changes by Republicans. But they said the unrelentingly bleak economic news demanded action.

“We cannot delay this,” said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Democrats’ No. 2 leader. “We can’t engage in the old political rhetoric of saying, ‘Well, maybe it could be a little bit better here and a little bit better there.’ We’ve got to pull together.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., agreed that more could be done in the area of housing, though he said tapping money in the separate financial bailout fund would be a more likely way to pay for mortgage relief.

Under Obama’s plan, strained state budgets would receive a cash infusion, projects for roads and other infrastructure would be funded, and “green jobs” in the energy sector would be created. In its centerpiece tax cut, single workers would gain $500 and couples $1,000, even if they don’t earn enough to owe federal income taxes.

Among the major changes Kyl said would be needed to gain Republican support in the Senate was the tax rebate for individuals and couples, which he criticized as going to too many people who didn’t pay the tax to start with. He also criticized the bill for seeking to create nearly three dozen government programs and giving states far more money than they need.

Durbin argued that $1 out of every $3 in the bill goes to tax cuts and defended it as aimed at helping working families. While he contended that Democrats were “very open” to Republican proposals, he cited only what he said were calls for more money in job-creating public works projects, typically a Democratic priority.

Most Republican governors have broken with their GOP colleagues in Congress and are pushing for passage of President Barack Obama‘s economic aid plan that would send billions to states for education, public works and health care.

Their state treasuries drained by the financial crisis, governors would welcome the money from Capitol Hill, where GOP lawmakers are more skeptical of Obama’s spending priorities.

The 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, planned to meet in Washington this weekend with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and other senators to press for her state’s share of the package.

By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist worked the phones last week with members of his state’s congressional delegation, including House Republicans. Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, the Republican vice chairman of the National Governors Association, planned to be in Washington on Monday to urge the Senate to approve the plan.

“As the executive of a state experiencing budget challenges, Gov. Douglas has a different perspective on the situation than congressional Republicans,” said Douglas’ deputy chief of staff, Dennise Casey.

Not a single Republican voted with the majority last week when the House approved Obama’s $819 billion combination of tax cuts and new spending. The president’s goal is to create or preserve 3 million to 4 million jobs.

Republicans led by House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio complained that the plan is laden with pet projects and will not yield the jobs or stimulate the economy in the way Obama has promised.

The measure faces GOP opposition in the Senate, where it will be up for a vote in the week ahead.

But states are coping with severe budget shortfalls and mounting costs for Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor. So governors, including most Republicans, are counting on the spending to help keep their states afloat.

This past week the bipartisan National Governors Association called on Congress to quickly pass the plan.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the Republican leader in the Senate, said today that he expected the economic stimulus bill to pass in the Senate without too many changes from the House bill — and with little if any Republican support.

He called the House vote on the stimulus on Wednesday an example of “bipartisan opposition.” All House Republicans voted against the bill and they were joined by 11 Democrats.

McConnell said he applauded the president’s effort for bipartisanship but he said Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats didn’t make that a reality.

The Senator was interviewed by Neil Cavuto….

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After crushing defeats in back-to-back elections, the top Senate Republican warned Thursday that the GOP risks remaining out of power in the White House and Congress unless it better explains its core principles to woo one-time faithful and new loyalists.

By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer

“The results of the two recent elections are real, and so are the obstacles we face as a party,” Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told the Republican National Committee on Thursday. “My concern is that unless we do something to adapt, our status as a minority party may become too pronounced for an easy recovery.”

“The situation is challenging, but it’s far from irreversible,” McConnell added, a dash of optimism in an otherwise stark assessment of where the Republican Party went wrong as he provided a road map for how it can right itself.

He spoke to Republicans gathered in Washington to choose the next national chairman; five candidates are trying to unseat former President George W. Bush‘s hand-picked RNC chairman, Mike Duncan of Kentucky. The vote is Friday.

“A trillion-dollar spending bill would be the largest spending bill in the history of our country at a time when our national debt is already the largest in history,” McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said in a statement. “As a result, it will require tough scrutiny and oversight. Taxpayers, already stretched to the limit, deserve nothing less.”

By Laura Litvan
Bloomberg

McConnell called for giving lawmakers and the public at least one week to review the legislation once it has been written. He also said he wanted Senate committee hearings on the measure, rather than immediate floor consideration.

His demand, in a Senate where minority Republicans will still have the power to block legislation, could stall a drive by Democrats to approve legislation soon after Obama’s Jan. 20 inauguration.

Obama advisers and congressional Democrats estimate the stimulus package, expected to include new infrastructure spending and tax cuts, may total $850 billion. Some economists are recommending as much as $1 trillion to boost the sagging economy.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, says her goal is to send legislation to Obama on the day of his inauguration. A spokesman for Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said today that, because he will need some Republican support to approve the legislation, the timing of Senate action is unclear.